`I had no input' on dubious war claim, Blair aide asserts

He denies leaking identity of BBC source to media

August 20, 2003|By Glenn Frankel, The Washington Post.

LONDON — Prime Minister Tony Blair's top aide conceded Tuesday that the government could have better protected from the media spotlight a senior weapons expert caught up in a controversy over Iraq's access to weapons of mass destruction, but he insisted that he played no role in leaking David Kelly's identity to reporters.

Alastair Campbell, Blair's communications director, told a public inquiry into Kelly's apparent suicide that he had wanted Kelly to testify before a parliamentary committee probing the government's use of intelligence to justify the war against Iraq.

Campbell said he believed Kelly's testimony would help discredit a BBC claim that Campbell had "sexed up" an intelligence dossier by insisting that it include a dubious assertion that Iraq could launch chemical or biological weapons within 45 minutes of an order.

Kelly came forward in late June to tell superiors at the Ministry of Defense that he had spoken to BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan and that he may have been his confidential source for the report. But he denied telling Gilligan that Campbell had been involved or that officials knew the 45-minute claim was probably false.

Kelly testified before two parliamentary committees during the week of July 14 after his name appeared in three British newspapers. On Friday, July 18, his body was found near his Oxfordshire home with his left wrist slashed. Gilligan has since revealed that Kelly was his source.

Campbell insisted that the 45-minute claim was placed in the dossier by the top-secret Joint Intelligence Committee.

`Presentational' advice

"I had no input, output, influence whatsoever at any stage in the process" in inserting the claim, he testified. He said he had offered "presentational" advice on the language and organization of the dossier, but that its credibility had rested upon it being solely the work of intelligence officials.

The dossier was published in September and became a key part of Blair's case in pressing the British public and a reluctant House of Commons to support the U.S.-led military campaign.

Campbell said he learned from Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon on July 4 that Kelly had come forward. He said he realized then that "if this person was the source it was probably the only way we would be able to establish the truth, namely that the allegations of May 29 [the BBC report] were false."

Blair agreed with Campbell, but warned him to leave the matter to the Ministry of Defense, Campbell testified.

"The PM's view was very, very clear," he said.

The ministry leaked significant details of Kelly's identity without revealing his name, but confirmed the name when reporters suggested it. Campbell said in hindsight he believed it would have been better to have obtained Kelly's consent to announce his name, "and then you can actually put in place all the proper support that somebody who is not used to the kind of pressure can then maybe better deal with it."

Lord Justice Brian Hutton, who is presiding over the inquiry, asked Campbell whether anyone spoken up at internal meetings over disclosure of Kelly's name to say, "Hold on, this is a civil servant, is it right that we should do this?"

`I didn't do anything'

Campbell replied that the name would have leaked quickly even if defense officials had not helped along the process. "It would have come out, because these things do," he told Hutton.

He insisted he was not involved, however.

"I didn't do anything to bring that about because I was under strict instructions not to," he said.

Campbell said officials were surprised by Kelly's death.

"The impression I got was of a very strong, resolute character, clearly of deep convictions, and who had been in many difficult, stressful circumstances, and I just do not think it crossed anybody's mind that it might take this turn that it did," he said.

Campbell said the Gilligan story was "a lie" that had deeply angered Blair and himself. He testified about a half-dozen letters he had dispatched to BBC officials complaining about the report and other coverage of the Iraq war.

The BBC has insisted its report was generally accurate, although Gilligan conceded in testimony last week that he had misspoken in reporting that officials had used intelligence material they knew was probably false.